This invention relates to a sliver guiding device for a fiber processing machine, particularly a card or a drawing frame and is of the type that has at least one immovable guide wall for guiding a sliver (single or multiple) running therethrough. The walls of the sliver guiding device converge (for example, conically) at least in part and are structured to gather the material of the sliver. At the downstream end of the sliver guiding device (as viewed in the direction of sliver run) a rotatable withdrawing roll pair having cylindrical surfaces is provided. The guide walls of the sliver guiding device project into the bight which is formed by the two rolls of the roll pair and which terminates in the nip of the roll pair.
At the outlet of a carding machine the gathered fiber web is introduced into a sliver forming web trumpet having conically converging inner wall faces and the thus-densified sliver is continuously pulled out of the web trumpet. At the outlet end of a drawing frame the drawn slivers too, are introduced into a sliver trumpet of conically converging inner walls and the sliver is pulled out as a densified sliver. In each instance the sliver trumpet is a one-piece component.
According to a known arrangement, at the input of a drawing frame a sliver guide for a plurality of slivers is provided, the outlet of which extends to the nip of the withdrawing rolls. Two walls of the sliver guide are conically converging. The sliver guide is a one-piece component and has two side walls, a top wall and a bottom wall. It is a disadvantage of this conventional arrangement that the sliver frictionally slides along all sides of the immovable wall faces. Because of the closed configuration of the sliver guide, a lateral yielding of the sliver is not possible. Also, a release of air which escapes from the running sliver as a result of its compression by the trumpet is possible only through the inlet and outlet of the trumpet. It is a further drawback that when the sliver number is changed, due to the rigid, immovable walls, an adaptation of the sliver guide is rendered more difficult. Also, threading of the slivers into and through the sliver guide is time-consuming and labor-intensive when practiced with conventional devices.